Barn Owl Chick Feathers

Around this time of year, I get a chance to see barn owl chicks up close in the World Bird Sanctuary’s propagation department. 

  Barn Owl chick at 1 week -- at this stage the feather follicles are very visible

Barn Owl chicks hatch with every feature perfectly formed--just on a very small scale.  Their closed eyes are surrounded by the beginnings of little facial discs.  Each foot is covered with impossibly small, yet perfect scales, and each toe is tipped with a sharp little talon.  Along the length of pink, nearly transparent skin covering their bodies, are rows of very active little feather follicles.

Barn Owl chick - 2 weeks old - showing the beginnings of its fluffy white down 

When I first saw a barn owl chick, I was surprised to see that its body was not entirely covered with feathers, as I thought a bird’s body must be.  Instead, it appears that the little bird is wearing a pinstripe suit with pink and white fluffy stripes.  The feather follicles form only along certain regions.  The gaps of bare skin in between the follicles are called apteria.  Birds can raise their feathers to allow air to circulate along the apteria.  This helps the birds keep cool, which is crucial considering that birds have one of the highest metabolic rates of any animal on earth.

  Barn Owl chicks at 3 weeks - covered in its insulating layer of down

When the owlet hatches, it is covered in a fine, natal down.  Soon, this stringy down is replaced with fluffy white down.  The growth of this layer of down is readily visible from day to day, and is nature’s best insulating material.  I wonder if the early down feathers that the young chicks grow resembles the integumentary feathers found on some fossil dinosaur species, such as Sinosauropteryx prima, a small theropod discovered in the Yixian Formation in China.

Barn Owl chicks at 7 weeks - still in down but already beginning to develop its wing feathers  

Could the development of feathers in an individual bird’s life somehow mirror the development of feathers on a much larger time scale?  I don’t know, but when I watch the barn owlets, I see something very primitive, intricate, and beautiful develop right before my eyes.  Every aspect of the owl, from its behavior as an adult education bird, to the development of its first feathers provides me with an endless source for questions and a deep sense of appreciation for the complexity of life on earth.

Submitted by Leah Sainz, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer

Owls grow up too fast!

** First this morning, I want to say thank you to all of our friends and readers who donated and offered their time to help us recover from the flood. The Meramec River reportedly crested at 38 feet yesterday, two feet lower than what had been predicted, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we managed to escape the worst. I will post an update as soon as I know the extent of the damage. On a cheerier note: Eurasian Eagle Owls! These fantastic creatures are just one example of what your support makes possible. Thank you.

If there were an international cuteness award for baby raptors (and there should be!) I think the Eurasian Eagle Owl (EEO) would win every year. The EEO is one of the largest owls in the world, standing 24-28 inches tall with a wingspan in excess of 5 feet! In England, these owls were persecuted to near extinction in the late 19th century. The oldest recorded eagle owl lived to be 68 years old. An eagle owl weighing 6.5 - 8.5 pounds can take prey as large as a roe deer weighing 28-30 pounds.

In the wild, this owl is an accomplished hunter, dieting primarily on mammals but extending their menu to include fish, birds, reptiles, and even insects when need be. They catch their prey in the air, on the ground, or even plunging into water! During the first half of the 20th century, Eurasian eagle owls saw tremendous declines in population due to habitat loss, persecution, disease, and poisoning. Even today, many of us use poison to kill rats and other household pets, without realizing we are also killing those very animals that help keep pest populations under control!

Thanks to efforts including education and re-introduction, EEOs have made a partial recovery in Europe.

These pictures chart the growth of Eurasian Eagle Owl chicks at WBS from 11-77 days. They were taken by our good friend and talented photographer Gay Schroer:

11 days old

14 days old

17 days old

34 days old

48 days old

77 Days (check out those big feet!)

For more information on EEOs, check out www.peregrinefund.org, which was a valuable source for this post.

Hatch alert! Augur buzzards are out of the egg...

Tyler and Arusha’s first chick hatched on Saturday. This is the chick who was pipping in the earlier video. As you can see, she or he is quite vocal and doing well. The second chick is on its way out of the egg in this video.

Notice that when Arusha comes to brood, she balls up her talons in order not to harm her chicks. She’s a very good mother! See below the video for more information on Augur Buzzards.


The Augur Buzzard (family Accipitridae, Buteo rufofuscus) is the highest flying hawk in Africa and can reach heights of more than 10,000 feet. They stand 21 inches tall and have a wingspan over four feet wide. They are larger cousins of the red tailed hawk of North America and have a brick red tail, just like the red tailed hawk. Their nickname "the jackal" comes from their loud laughing call.

Augur Buzzards are one of the more common birds of prey in Africa and are found in the East African countries of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and central Namibia. They diet primarily on reptiles like lizards and snakes, but they also eat small mammals and carrion when need be.

Female Augur Buzzards are around 10% larger than males. Here is a picture of one of our Augur Buzzards used for education, Kee-oo. Kee-oo is a dark phase female. She hatched in 1992.

Banding the barn owl chicks

All birds that we breed have to be banded and reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the end of the calendar year. When the chicks are two weeks old, we put a numbered, seamless band that we get from USFWS on their leg. We put them on at two weeks because at that age they are still small enough that the band can be slipped on over the foot, but big enough that it doesn't slip off.

With our release birds, we replace the seamless band with a release band at the time of release. Our goal is to raise the barn owl population here in Missouri, where barn owls are rare.

Sleepy little barn owl

This is the last of Athena's and Sonar's chicks, hatched on the 20th of February. The hand raised chicks will be sent to education programs around the country, while Athena and Sonar raise the others for release.

The chicks are carefully monitored for health and weight and kept in professional brooders until they are able to thermo-regulate. At this stage, they are fed at regular intervals four times daily.

As you can see, this little owl would much prefer a nap!



P.S. Joy's finger was injured by Joy and not by a bird!

Meanwhile, back at the nest....

Here you see Athena hard at work caring for her young. Brooding Five chicks is tough work!

Barn owls start incubating as soon as the first egg is laid, so the oldest chick is two weeks older (and considerably bigger) than the youngest chick. Raptor chicks can't thermo-regulate, so Athena has to brood them to keep them warm. As they get older and get more down, they need less brooding.

The chicks being raised in the nest box will be released here in Missouri. In the midwest, barn owls are rare. The parents (Athena and Sonar) are both unreleasable rehab birds. Most of the babies we raise are released. A smaller number are raised for breeding or education.

News from the nest box!

In January our barn owl Athena and Sonar, her mate, began nesting. As of today six of their eight fertile eggs have hatched. Five of the babies remain with Athena in her nest box.

The bird in this video is three days old and being hand-raised for education purposes. The baby is eating lean rat meat, with some vitamin water, and calcium added.